Canning Pears

Wow, we're already a week into September; this year is going by quickly!

Pears are ripening. We picked all the fruit off Jake's tree last weekend, placing it between layers of newspaper, filling this washtub. They were still kind of green, but are turning yellow quickly.

The instructions I found for canning pears talked about using ascorbic acid to keep discoloration to a minimum and "hot packing" the jars (hot pears cooked for a few minutes in hot water) followed by filling the jars with a hot syrup. This seems complicated to me. I mean, you've got hot pears in a liquid that you put into a jar. Where is there room for hot syrup I ask? And, is ascorbic acid really necessary??

I called my mom to ask how to can pears. She said to put the peeled, cut up fruit in a bowl of water to deter browning and then cold pack the hot jars (draining the water off), then filling up with syrup. Yes! I knew it could be simpler!

Here is a canner full of jars, happily boiling away...

After two canner loads, I have 14 quarts of pears.  Not bad for an afternoon's work!

This year I discovered "Tattler" lids for the first time... they are plastic, reusable, flats that seal with a removable rubber ring, but you use a regular jar ring while processing and they come in regular and wide-mouth sizes.

Here is link to them on the Lehman's website Reusable Canning Jar Lids

Peas Please

I got my sugar snap peas planted a bit late, but the good thing about that they're still producing.

My row is only about six feet long, but I picked two quarts worth the other night.

Since this was too much to eat fresh, I blanched and froze three bags worth...

This will be nice in stir-fries later!

It's Time for Gardening!

After a wet, cold-ish spring, we finally have some warm weather! Okay, warm-ish. 

Here is the view to the west from my deck to the side of the house.

I got some seeds put into the ground weekend before last...

The peas are up! Just poked out of the ground yesterday.

The radishes just came out today...

I love the idea of using wine corks as garden markers. Use a Sharpie to label, then jam it onto the pointy end of a bamboo skewer. 

Now waiting for lettuce and carrots, which were planted the same time as the radishes (a week ago), and the kohlrabi, redbeets, basil, and zucchini I planted on Sunday.

Here are some other garden highlights...

 Asparagus

 Oregano

Rosemary

Mint

The asparugus has been excellent grilled in some aluminum foil with garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

The oregano provided an interesting substitution for cilantro when I made salsa the other day. It was good!  A little Italiany.  Good thing I like Italian.

I haven't actually used fresh rosemary yet this year, but it'll come in handy.

The mint makes an awesome addition to my morning smoothies.

I love gardens and herbs and fresh vegetables!

Does anyone have any good ideas for using rosemary? Leave a comment...

Authenticity

About a year ago, I found myself doing some self exploration to help guide the next steps of my life. Along the way, I made a "mind map." Here is a look at a website like the one I used for guidance:  http://litemind.com/what-is-mind-mapping/.  I made heavy use of clipart and photos I found on the web as well as words I found meaningful. 

One of my favorite words was "authenticity." And since then, I have been thinking about what that really means.  Tonight I came up with this:  Authenticity is when your actions match up with your values.

Like, duh, right?

So... my goal is to spend time doing things that express what I value.

I believe this assists with mental peace...  So, I'm counting on it!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've been getting into do-it-yourself projects lately... okay, some of these ideas have been brewing for a while (it looks like I printed these directions for laundry detergent in 2008...) and am now implementing a few things here and there.

Tonight it was time for "DIY Laundry Soap". The source of the directions come from the Sew Green blog.

The ingredients were easy: a bar of pure soap, washing soda, and a bucket.  I picked up the washing soda a few weeks ago at Fred Meyer in the cleaning supplies section. I should have looked for Ivory soap or something else really plain, but I didn't think of it all the times I'm in Freddies or anywhere else, like Bi Mart, and since I was thinking about it today while at Grocery Outlet, I ended up with Dial because they didn't have Ivory. Or anything else without a rather strong smell. That I'm not sure I like. Oh well... I'll give it a try. 

So you grate the bar of soap into a saucepan and cover with water to heat up and melt (stirring periodically). Pour the resulting sludge into the empty bucket and add a cup of washing soda.  Add hot water and stir up, adding more hot water until the bucket is full.

Okay, so the directions left out some information, such as, How big a bucket??  Since I've had these directions for four years or so, I decided at some point that a bucket such as those used for a gallon of coconut oil would be perfect! And since I use a proliferate amount of coconut oil, buying it by the gallon turned out to not be a problem for me. 

Here is a picture of my full bucket: 

And here is the full bucket sitting on top of the dryer, next to the box of powdered laundry detergent I've been using.

Since Jake tells me powdered detergent is not a good idea for wash machines or dish washers when one is on a septic system, I thought it would be a good idea to make a shift. Now if only I can find a DIY dishwasher detergent...

Canning Applesauce

I got a hold of a big paper sack half full of Rhode Island Greening apples that came from a private farm on Sauvie Island up near Portland. If I had looked up this apple variety before tonight, my plans might have changed...  turns out they keep really well into the winter and don't cook up as soft as some.

Instead, I washed and quartered them up, and put them in a stock pot tonight to cook. My canning reference for applesauce said to add a cup of water to the pot to prevent scorching. Ha! Not nearly enough...

Rhode Island Greenings make a nice sturdy cooking apple for pies and such as they keep their shape when cooked. No matter, once they began to soften, I used the potato masher to help things along.  :)

Next they went into the food mill (thank you Sylvia, for passing it on when you no longer needed it!) to be pressed. This ended up taking me more than an hour - those apples really were resisting being squished.

The sauce was really thick... too thick actually. I thinned it down with some home pressed cider which helped sweeten it as well. A little sugar and a lot of cinnamon went in too.  Okay, so I got eight pints into the canner with one quart left to eat fresh.

Okay so it'll be 11:00 before I get to bed... but hey! I didn't get to do any canning in 2011; who knew I'd have the opportunity in January!?

Aren't they lovely?

And... they all sealed!